ditions about ‘True Thomas’ are recorded by Scott (Minstrelsy, vol. iv.), in the ‘Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club,’ by R. Chambers (Popular Rhymes, 1870), and Murray (Introduction). Huntly Bank and the adjoining ravine, the Rhymer's Glen, were ultimately included in the domain of Abbotsford.
[The best account is given by Dr. J. A. H. Murray in his edition of The Romance and Prophecies (E. E. T. S., 1875), which may be supplemented by Thomas of Erceldoune, herausg. von A. Brandl, Berlin, 1880. Kölbing (1882) and Mr. G. P. McNeill (Scottish Text Soc. 1886) may be consulted in their editions of Sir Tristrem. See also Lord Hailes's Remarks on the Hist. of Scotland, 1773; Pinkerton's Ancient Scottish Poems, 1786; Jameson's Popular Ballads and Songs, 1806; Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Poetical Works, i–iv., 1833, &c., and Sir Tristrem, ib. v.; Henderson's Popular Rhythmes of Berwickshire, in Hist. of Berw. Nat. Club, 1837; Madden's Notes on Sir Gawayne, 1839, p. 304; Warton's Hist. of English Poetry, 1840; Halliwell's Fairy Mythology of a Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare Soc.), 1845; Life by D. Laing in Encyclopædia Britannica, 8th ed. xxi. 228; Irving's Hist. of Scottish Poetry, 1861; R. Chambers's Popular Rhymes of Scotland, 1870; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. 1873, xi. 70, 5th ser. 1874, i. 5; Wilson's Poets and Poetry of Scotland, 1876; J. Veitch's Hist. and Poetry of Scottish Border, 1878; Guest's English Rhythms, by Skeat, 1882; Ward's Catalogue of Romances in British Museum, 1883, i. 328–38; Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 1884, ii. 317, &c.]
ERDESWICKE, SAMPSON (d. 1603), historian of Staffordshire, was descended from a family which could trace its ancestry from Richard de Vernon, baron of Shipbrook, 20 William I (1085–6). Originally seated at Erdeswicke Hall in Minshull Vernon, Cheshire, the Erdeswickes, after the alienation of that estate, resided for several generations in the adjacent township of Leighton, and finally settled at Sandon, Staffordshire, on the marriage of Thomas Erdeswicke with Margaret, only daughter and heiress of Sir James Stafford of that place, in the twelfth year of Edward III (1338–9). The Staffords came from Thomas Stafford and his wife Auda, coheiress of Warin Vernon, and thus a new connection was formed with the original house of Shipbrook (cf. descent given by Erdeswicke himself in Harl. MS. 381, f. 153 b). Sampson was born at Sandon. His father, Hugh Erdeswicke, rigidly adhered to the catholic faith of his ancestors, on which account he was subjected to much persecution during the reign of Elizabeth. In May 1582 Overton, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, reported to the privy council that Hugh Erdeswicke, lord of the manor of Sandon, ‘the sorest and dangerousest papist, one of them in all England,’ was not afraid before him and Sir Walter Aston, ‘openly in the sight of the whole country,’ to strike a justice of the peace ‘upon the pate with his crabtree staff,’ and that in Sandon churchyard, for which he was bound in 200l. to make his appearance at the next general assizes (Strype, Annals, 8vo, vol. iii. pt. ii. pp. 214–215). Allusion is also made to him in ‘An Ancient Editor's Note-book’ (Morris, Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers, 3rd ser. pp. 17–18), from which it appears that he was fined and imprisoned for striking a pursuivant whom he found ransacking his house. The occurrence may well have been the preliminary to that recorded by Strype. Sampson studied at Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1553 and 1554 as a gentleman commoner, and afterwards returned to Sandon to pass his days in the pursuits of a country gentleman. His leisure was devoted to antiquarian researches, and he made numerous collections. He began his ‘View’ or ‘Survey’ of Staffordshire about 1593, and continued to labour at it until his death (Fuller, Worthies, ‘Staffordshire,’ p. 45). It commences after the style of a letter, and is addressed presumably to Camden. The history of the manuscript is enshrouded in mystery, which is not lessened by the supposition that Erdeswicke left a second and revised draft. William Burton, the historian of Leicestershire [q. v.], writing in 1604, the year after Erdeswicke's death, states that even then it was not known into whose hands the manuscript had fallen, though he had been informed that it was in the possession of Sir Thomas Gerrard of Etwall, Derbyshire (Gent. Mag. vol. lxviii. pt. ii. p. 1011). According to Sir William Dugdale, the original, from which he made a transcript now preserved at Merevale Hall, Warwickshire, belonged to George Digby of Sandon, and was lent by the latter to Sir Simon Degge [q. v.], who returned it with a letter dated 20 Feb. 1669, giving a gossiping account of the state of the county (Erdeswicke, Survey, ed. Harwood, 1844, preface, pp. liv–lix). Wood asserts that ‘the original, or at least a copy,’ had been acquired by Walter Chetwynd of Ingestrie [q. v.] (Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 736); but in his examination of the Ingestrie manuscripts Stebbing Shaw could not find any trace of the original (Gent. Mag. vol. lxviii. pt. ii. p. 921). The transcript at Ingestrie is fully described in Salt's ‘List,’ p. 8. Numerous other manuscript copies are extant, varying, however, not only in the orthography and language, but even in the
